I am very interested in starting a Roth IRA at my discount broker. What I would like to do is roll over funds from my traditional IRA, AND put in my Foolish Four stocks from my current, non-IRA portfolio.

My question is - is it legal to transfer stocks from a traditional portfolio into a Roth IRA, and will I be able to trade these stocks just as I would have in a traditional portfolio (e.g. to adjust for the new follish fours every year)?

I am planning on keeping the IRA for at least 5 years, at which point I planon buying my first house, so I am not worried about whether I'll be able take the funds out

TMF Pixy will know for sure, but I think that an IRA has to be funded with cash, except for a transfer from another IRA.

If you want to transfer Foolish Four stocks into an IRA, the time you can do it is on the anniversary, when you're going to be selling some of them anyway, depending on the rankings then current. That is, you would sell the shares and then fund the IRA with cash (up to the contribution limit).

Once the funds are in your IRA account, you can purchase any stocks (or other investment vehicles that the broker offers) and trade just as in a regular account.

<<My question is - is it legal to transfer stocks from a traditional portfolio into a Roth IRA, and will I be able to trade these stocks just as I would have in a traditional portfolio (e.g. to adjust for the new follish fours every year)?>>

TchrP is dead on with the comments posted to your query. Stocks may be transferred into an IRA from only two sources, as part of a rollover from another IRA or as part of a rollover from an employer's qualified retirement plan. They may not be transferred into an IRA from a plain ole vanilla taxable account. Only cash can be contributed from your taxable assets.

<<Only cash can be contributed [to an IRA] from your taxable assets.>>

Yup.

And I, too use Ameritrade for my IRA. All four, actually; a regular and a Roth for self and wife. They let me open a ROTH IRA even before they had the "approved" IRS forms. We've had that $2000 ticking away in our Roths since January.